Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Sede Medellín, 050041, Medellín, Colombia.
Grupo de Investigación BIORUM, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Sede Medellín, 050041, Medellín, Colombia.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 Sep;31(43):55720-55735. doi: 10.1007/s11356-024-34463-8. Epub 2024 Sep 7.
The increase in the negative effects of global change promotes the search for alternatives to supply the demand for food worldwide aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure food security. Animal protein, which is a main source of nutrients in the diet of today's society, especially beef, which is one of the most demanded products nowadays, has been criticized not only for its high water consumption and land occupation for production but also for the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) from enteric methane generated in the fermentation process within the bovine rumen and deforestation for the adaptation of pastures. This study is mainly motivated by the lack of quantifiable scientific information in Colombia on the environmental impacts of beef production. Therefore, it is intended to estimate some of the impacts of beef production in extensive systems using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method under a particular scenario considering all the production phases (from raw material to fattening, where the cattle are ready to be slaughtered). The study was conducted with data supplied by a farm in Antioquia, Colombia, and the functional unit (FU) was defined as 1 kg of live weight (LW). The scope of this study was gate-to-gate. "The 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories" (IPCC 2006; IPCC 2019) was used to calculate methane and nitrous oxide emissions. LCA modeling was developed with Ecoinvent database v3.8 and the Umberto LCA + software. It was found that the most affected category of damage was ecosystem quality, which represents 77% of the total, followed by human health at 17% and resources at 6%. The category impact of agricultural land occupation is the one that represents the most significant contribution to the ecosystem quality endpoint, with a percentage of 87%, due to the soil's compaction and the loss of the soil's properties. Additionally, the obtained carbon footprint for the system was 28.9 kg of CO-eq/kg LW.
全球变化负面影响的增加促使人们寻找替代方案，以满足全球对食品的需求，同时符合可持续发展目标（SDGs），以确保粮食安全。动物蛋白是当今社会饮食中的主要营养来源，尤其是牛肉，它是当今需求量最大的产品之一，不仅因其生产过程中高耗水和占用大量土地而受到批评，还因其在牛瘤胃发酵过程中产生的温室气体（GHG）排放和为适应牧场而砍伐森林而受到批评。本研究主要是由于缺乏关于哥伦比亚牛肉生产环境影响的可量化科学信息。因此，本研究旨在使用生命周期评估（LCA）方法，根据特定情景考虑所有生产阶段（从原材料到育肥，即牛准备屠宰的阶段）来估计一些大规模系统中牛肉生产的影响。该研究使用来自哥伦比亚安蒂奥基亚的一个农场提供的数据进行，并将功能单位（FU）定义为 1 公斤活重（LW）。本研究的范围是从源头到终端。“2006 年气专委国家温室气体清单指南的 2019 年修订版”（IPCC 2006；IPCC 2019）用于计算甲烷和氧化亚氮排放。LCA 模型使用 Ecoinvent 数据库 v3.8 和 Umberto LCA + 软件进行开发。结果发现，受影响最严重的损害类别是生态系统质量，占总数的 77%，其次是人类健康占 17%，资源占 6%。农业土地占用的类别影响是对生态系统质量终点贡献最大的类别，占 87%，这是由于土壤压实和土壤特性丧失所致。此外，该系统获得的碳足迹为 28.9 公斤 CO2-eq/kg LW。
